Film packages are now on the market which are a single-use throwaway camera directed to make it possible to take pictures whenever desired without buying or carrying about an expensive and heavy camera. A single-use disposable camera must be cheap and light in weight, so that the essential parts of the film package are made from synthetic resin materials, and the number of necessary parts thereof is reduced so as to minimize the material cost and the weight thereof.
A single-use disposable camera for panoramic photography has been marketed by Eastman Kodak Co., in which a wide-angle lens system having a short focal length of about 25 mm is used as a taking lens, and the exposed area of the film is defined by a horizontally extended exposure frame 12 .times.36 mm in size. Upon printing, the 12.times.36 mm picture frame is enlarged at a magnification twice the standard magnification for a standard 24.times.36 mm picture frame of 35 mm film. As a result, a print twice as long as a standard size print is provided.
The taking lens system of the above-described panoramic camera comprises a wide angle lens system composed of two lenses, the spacing between these lens elements being maintained constant by means of a spacing ring. Furthermore, because the principal point of the taking lens system lies between these lenses, an aperture stop member for defining the aperture size (the size of exposure opening) and a shutter blade for opening and closing the exposure opening are also disposed between these lenses. Consequently, the actual spacing between the lenses is defined by the thickness of the spacing ring and the aperture stop member. The spacing ring and the shutter blade of the Kodak panoramic camera is shown in FIG. 9.
As shown, the known shutter blade 85 is of V-shape and can pivot about an axle 91 when one end 86 thereof is struck by an actuating lever 87, whereby the other end 88 opens and closes an exposure opening 89 formed in an aperture stop member 94. An arm portion between the elbow 90 and the other end 88 is curved along a circular arc concentric with the axle 91, so that the shutter blade 85 can pivot through a narrow cut-out 93 of the spacing ring 92 that is only slightly wider than the arm portion, into and out of a position occluding the exposure opening 89.
However, since the spacing between the two lenses should be maintained precisely constant, not only the spacing ring 92 but also the aperture stop member 94 must be formed with great accuracy, which increases the cost of these parts. In addition to this, the assembling of these parts is cumbersome.
The shutter blade 85 is preferably formed as a single element, but the other end 88 tends to oscillate in the optical axis direction due to the shock applied to the shutter blade 85 when the one end 86 is struck by the actuating lever 87, because the portion from the axle 91 to the other end 88 is long and narrow. Such oscillation makes the other end 88 of the shutter blade 85 rub against the aperture stop member 94 and/or a lens disposed on the front of the spacing ring 92, which causes imprecision of exposure.
On the other hand, the panoramic camera as described above can be constructed from elements similar to those of disposable cameras for standard photography, except for the wide angle taking lens system and the 12.times.36 mm picture frame. For this reason, the Kodak panoramic camera has a main body section for a standard picture frame, and a separate frame member having an opening of 12.times.36 mm is mounted in the main body section, so that the main body section can be produced efficiently.
Furthermore, the frame member also functions as a light-shielding frame for shielding the film surface from stray light beams, instead of a light-trapping member such as plush that is cemented on the inner surface of the main body section, so as to eliminate the cementing step and thus lower the cost of the disposable camera.
The frame member is made from synthetic resin material by molding, but it is impossible to form the frame member as a single body by molding, because the frame member must have not only a first opening for defining the size of the picture frame but also a second opening for blocking out stray light beams. For this reason, the frame member is divided along a horizontal line into two parts, and these upper and lower parts are molded individually and are attached to each other prior to being mounted in the main body section.
However, because such a frame member divided into upper and lower parts has a joint that extends across the first and second openings, the upper and lower parts must be formed with great accuracy so that light may not leak through the joint. The need for great accuracy increases the cost. Furthermore, it is necessary to take care not to separate the two parts from each other when mounting the compound frame member in the main body section. Therefore, the efficiency of manufacturing is reduced.
In a camera having a wide angle taking lens system such as a panoramic camera, the user when gripping the camera tends to place his fingers carelessly in the photographic field. In order to avoid this, the above-described Kodak panoramic camera is provided with a hood surrounding the taking lens and projecting forward from the front surface of the camera. The hood is externally mounted on the camera body.
However, mounting such a separate hood on the front of the camera will increase the number of parts and the number of assembling steps, which is unfavorable to lowering the cost for the camera.